To Dream a Dream
by Violinagin
Summary: Kaoru has a secret, befriends a hyper Misao, breaks into a music room, and builds a gingerbread house with our favorite rurouni. Not all at the same time, of course. A one shot about music and a place to call home. Modern AU.


**To Dream a Dream**

* * *

It was the music she woke up to. She rubbed her eyes and noticed the angle of the sun. It was later than she would have liked, but she couldn't argue that the rest was needed. She listened to the music that had woken her up without moving. It was a piano piece she didn't recognize but that was normal as she didn't know many songs. It was a sad and lonely tune, and yet still full of hope. She had to smile as it played and she let herself get lost in the music, closing her eyes to focus. While she was in the music, she could forget that she was dirty, scruffy Kaoru, who needed a bath, and had slept on a bench cradling her large book sack. She looked like any of the other college students on campus, but she knew she would never have the money for that type of education. She would be lucky to ever have enough for her own place again. At first it had been okay. She had had Sano to help her, but now he was gone too. Kaoru had started to think of the bench as hers, showing up after morning classes, and sleeping as if it was her break between this and another class. She looked like she belonged. She felt out of place.

Except while music was playing. There was music on the campus sometimes. Everything from boom boxes to students practicing their instruments to the band on the field. Once she had snuck into the theater and watched a recital. She didn't recognize most of the music but remembered sitting there, eyes wide as she watched each person come and change the piano into their own. She remembered one piece by someone in a suit, with bright red hair. She stood there, after it was done, shaking and crying silently. That song still came to her in pieces as she slept.

Her family had been so poor to begin with, even before. She didn't remember the first time she heard music, and none of it was connected with her parents. By the time she was old enough to remember, her mother had stopped singing forever. But Kaoru still grabbed on to every bit of music she heard, and played it silently in her head.

When the song was over, she opened her eyes and sat up. A young girl was sitting on the bench next to her, closing up her computer. She felt Kaoru watching, and looked up, Kaoru blushed a bit, looking down. Kaoru wasn't a real student. She didn't need to talk with them.

"I hope it wasn't bothering you."

Kaoru blinked and looked up. The girl was staring at her, and so she nodded. Then she realized what she was doing, and shook her head. Finally she opened her mouth.

"No, it was beautiful. It was time for me to wake up. I should have woken up earlier."

"Oh! Slept through a class, bummer! I did that three days ago. Luckily I have a note taker in there who I always copy off of. Hopefully you didn't miss too much. I'm Misao. Isn't is great music? I always listen to it while studying. Not sure how to pronounce his name, or I'd tell you how to google it. I'll burn you a copy." She said all this quickly, with a smile as she was putting up her computer.

"Kaoru. It's okay. I don't have a CD player."

"Really? Yeah, I only have this computer because Aoshi's parents bought him a new one and there was nothing wrong with this one. Or I'd still be using the old monsters in the computer lab. Anyway, pay it forward and all that, I have an old headset I never use, do you want it?"

Kaoru wasn't sure what to think. She sat a bit uncomfortably, not having talked to anyone on campus, ever, and being quite overwhelmed my Misao's exuberance and friendliness. She wasn't used to it. She looked uncertain, as she played with a fraying strap on her backpack.

"I don't..."

"Nonsense!" Misao laughed and jumped up, holding out her hand, which Kaoru took after a moments hesitation. "My apartment's just a short walk over this way. Let's go!"

And that was how Kaoru found her first friend with music.

* * *

It was hard keeping her secret from Misao. Not because Kaoru had to juggle a bunch of lies, but because Misao was so trusting and practically made up her own. When she asked Kaoru what her major was, Kaoru knew she was about to have to admit to being homeless, but when she started with,

"I am not..." Misao finished her sentence, "Not sure? It's okay. General studies aren't too bad, and you will decide eventually!" Whenever Kaoru looked extra scruffy, Misao would let her use her shower, commenting that they should get the showers in her apartment fixed. Even asking about where she lived, Kaoru only had to make a face of apology and Misao was finishing up her own idea of where Kaoru lived. "Oh! It's okay if you live in that part of town, I know it's not very safe at all, but sometimes school comes first. We'll just hang out here!"

At first Kaoru had tried to avoid her, unsure and unused to friends. But after the first week, with Misao hunting her down and handing her new music CDs and introducing her to her wide range of friends, Kaoru had to sigh and let herself get pulled along into her new life. It was the happiest she had been for as long as she could remember, though she still kept people at a distance, still certain that the moment they found out about her, they would look at her in horror and make her leave. She hadn't lied to Misao, but she hadn't corrected anything she had said, and she felt guilty. She didn't want Misao to know the truth. Not yet.

Aoshi was another story. Misao may have been trusting and might have easily explained away all of Kaoru's oddities, but Kaoru knew without any second thought that Aoshi was not fooled a minute. But he wasn't saying anything, and was perfectly polite, if as stoic as Kaoru, so she soon became, if not comfortable with, at least accustomed to his presence.

Kaoru had even found a few stores that would, if she cleaned up a bit first, let her do a few small, odd jobs for money. It wasn't a lot, but it was something. She now had a battery addiction to support. Her CD player ate them.

And the music! When she left Misao and Aoshi and their weird group of friends and found her secret places to spend the night, she would put on the old head phones, and put in one of her CDs. She could feel the piano, feel the music. It was almost overwhelming as she sat there each night, moved almost to tears by something so great, so magnificent, she knew it would consume her. She could forget she was on bare ground, with nothing but stars overhead and nothing around her for protection.

She knew it was dangerous to block out one of her senses like that, but she couldn't help it. The music would hold her, sustain her, make her more than what she was. The music was a part of her and she could not have stopped listening had she really wanted to.

* * *

In the winter quarter, Misao started taking a drama class. It was held in the large building that housed the theater, and was the one Kaoru had snuck in to watch a piano recital. Misao had asked Kaoru to meet her after her class, so that they could hang out at her apartment and plan Christmas. It was still a month away, but Christmas was always a big deal.

Kaoru had only managed a slight smile, and a "That might be fun" before Misao had grabbed up her bag, yelled about being late for biology, and left the student center at a run, knocking through a crowed of freshmen.

Kaoru had gotten up, and left through the opposite door in the direction of the theater. She was going to be waiting for Misao to get through with her two classes, and now she had a lot of thinking to do. She had no money for Christmas. Well, she had been saving up, but if she spent it on her new group of friends, she wouldn't have enough for an apartment so that she could get a real job. With her mind going round and round, wondering what she could do, what excuse she could make, her feet took her to the building which housed the theater, really, a large auditorium, and several classrooms. She found she could wander around, and make the excuse that she was waiting on one of her friends. But no one had ever stopped her in any of the buildings, so she never had to make an excuse.

Walking through the halls, her mind so far away from her feet in a magical land called Christmas, it took Kaoru a moment to realize she had stopped walking and was just staring into an empty classroom. For a moment, she blinked, unsure as to what had stopped her, and then she saw it.

The piano.

She wasn't sure if it was the same one from the recital, pushed here in an unused classroom until needed, but it was a piano. She had never been this close to one. She bit her lip, shifting from one foot to the other. She looked down the empty hall way, and then, walked slowly to the door of the classroom, and leaned inside. The light was on, but aside from the piano, chairs, and some folded screens that looked like they had been placed there for storage, the room was completely empty. She came inside slowly, and shut the door. She took off her bag, and laid it down.

"Hello." She said, looking at the piano. She held up her hand, and winced, she shouldn't be touching something so magnificent. It was large and took up most of the room. She wondered how the took it out of the room, and noticed one of the walls was made of folded plastic and ran along tracks. She turned her attention back to the piano and bit her lip.

"I am sorry I am not..." She paused and looked for the right words. "I know I am not the kind of person who usually touches you. I'm sorry for my impertinence, but I don't think I can help myself. Please forgive me." She bowed slightly, before laying out a hand to touch the dark piano case. She touched the piano lightly, on the stand where the music she couldn't read went, the bench, the cover on the keys. She even walked around the large body, finally coming back to the stool. She pulled it out, wincing a bit at the sharp sound the feet made on the tiled floor.

"I haven't done this before." She said as she sat down, "I am sorry if it's not good. Much better people have played you, I am sure." And with that, she opened the case and looked at the keys. They weren't as bright white, she noticed, or as shiny black as they had seen from her view from the top balcony corner. Kaoru could see that this piano had been played a lot. She smiled and wondered who had played the keys, and what songs the keys had hidden away to be discovered.

For the longest time she sat there, just looking. Until finally, tentatively, Kaoru pressed one down. The note filled the room and she smiled.

She knew this note, knew it in songs. She pressed another, and that noted joined the first. Soon she was pressing each note down, listening to it, learning its secrets. Some begged to be played together, and she listened. Listened to the sounds they made. Some were pretty, some were scary, some were sad. Some she recognized from songs she had been listening to. She stopped and let the sounds disappear from the room. She realized she was smiling brighter than she had in a long, long time.

Sighing, and closing her eyes she brought the song she had first heard from Misao into her mind. When she opened her eyes, she felt the keys, listened, and she could hear the song coming from them. She dropped her hands in surprise and laughed out loud, then brought her hands up again and played the song through.

And then, she remembered. The song from the recital.

She frowned as she remembered those notes, those groups of notes. Slowly, she began picking out the song, she had not heard it in so long, but she could hear it as she played. More started coming back to her.

* * *

Kenshin sighed. He knew he should be feeling better, but it seemed that his mood was getting worse.

Even teaching, something he had loved for years wasn't enough to help him. His last student had left, and he had just made it to his car when he realized he had left his bag in the room he was allowed to teach in when it wasn't being used for storage. He sighed as he went to the back and found it. When he picked it up, the bottom burst and several of his pieces of sheet music and all of his pens went rolling and sliding across the floor. He sighed as he bent down to start picking everything up. He had almost reached the last sheet of paper, lodged under one of the screens when he heard the door shut.

"Hello." A voice said. He looked around the screen he had been laying behind, and saw a girl. She was dressed like a regular college student, and had her hair bundled up in some sort of scarf, with several long black hairs trailing out. She was petite and looked like she was living off college ramen. She wasn't looking at him, but staring at the piano. He blinked, and thought 'That's odd'. He wondered if he should announce himself, but she looked skittish, and her odd behavior stopped him. He wanted to know what she would do next. He had never seen someone approach a piano like she did. She went to touch it, and he watched with fascination as she pulled back, and glanced up, as if she shouldn't for some reason.

"I am sorry I am not... I know I am not the kind of person who usually touches you.." He watched her as she talked to it as if it were alive.

His heart skipped a beat as he watched her, feeling a bit lightheaded. He had not seen anyone respond to a piano like that in years. He stayed where he was, arranging himself more comfortably as she finally sat down and stared at the keys. He watched her face, in profile from his point of view, as she stared at each key as she played it. He watched emotions flit across her face with each note she pressed down. Soon she was playing different cords. He frowned a bit, as she had told the piano she had never played before. He watched with fascination as she kept picking out chords and notes he recognized, and how from that first tentative press of a key she transformed until she was pressing the keys calmly and with determination.

She still did not play a song, but let the sounds and chords she had created hang in the air. He could see her smile, see her eyes sparkling with wonder. He was smiling with her as he watched, completely taken in by her spell. Then, she took a breath; it was as if she was waiting, listening. And then she started playing. He recognized the song and his eyes grew wide. She looked as surprised as he felt and when she laughed at herself, so full of joy and light, he wanted to laugh with her. He knew he was smiling like an idiot. He watched her play the whole song. As she finished, he slowly got to his feet, he didn't want to frighten her, but then he watched as she stilled, and posed her hands as if to play.

When she started, he couldn't believe his ears. For a minute, he was frozen, watching her with her eyes closed, a small wrinkle of concentration on her forehead. It was his song. He had written it so long ago, years and years. He had only played in once, just a few short weeks ago. How could she know it? He watched, standing frozen as he heard each note from her, concentrating.

Finally, her fingers stilled. Tears were threatening to come from the corners of her eyes, but they were still closed, her head was bowed. "I...

I don't remember the rest." She said softly.

"I can show you." He said, before he could stop himself. Her eyes flew open, and she stood, nearly knocking the stool back, but managing to catch it. She steadied it and herself, unsure of what to say. Both of them stared at each other, wide eyed. Finally, she seemed to register he had said something. Unsure, she looked down, then glanced up. She nodded.

That was how the music brought her Kenshin.

* * *

She came to the music room two or three times a week now. Misao was glad Kaoru had decided to pursue music instead of general studies, smacking her in the shoulder for not telling anyone sooner about her talent. Kaoru worried that Kenshin might start charging for lessons. As it was, he just told her when to show up, and never asked for anything in return.

He showed her how to read music. She didn't quite understand at first. She couldn't make the marks on the paper become music. But he was patient and kind, and would bring her songs to listen to, for her to play.

He discussed theory and she would try to understand, and then he would play and she would know, immediately what he meant.

No one knew her secret still.

It was the last day before Christmas break. Misao and Kaoru had planned the party. Well, Misao had planned, and Kaoru began preparations according to Misao's orders. Kaoru had to smile a bit as she finished putting up the last garland of of pine boughs and pine cones, wrapped with lights and gauzy ribbon. It did look nice. She frowned a bit. She still had not gotten anything for anyone. She sighed.

Kaoru had begun looking earnestly for work as well, but no one would hire someone without an actual address or phone number, even if it was the holidays in a college town such as this. She thought about just putting Misao's apartment number down, or her cell phone, but if anyone had sent a message or called, Kaoru would have had to explain herself. She did not want to lose her friendship with Misao just yet, just as things were starting to go a little right.

Locking Misao's door and closing it behind her, Misao would continue the work when she arrived, Kaoru made her way to the music room. There everything felt right, as if she found one corner of the world she actually belonged. Kenshin would be there, kind and thoughtful, and just willing to teach.

'I wonder if he suspects anything.' Kaoru mused as she walked quickly across grass and sidewalk, cutting her way awkwardly across the campus, taking the most direct route she could.

Smiling as she entered, she greeted Kenshin, who smiled back. He smelled good, she decided, and wondered if the way she smelled ever bothered him. She tried to shower every time she could, and would use the laundry at Misao's apartment. She did Misao's clothes as well, so she didn't feel guilty about not paying utilities.

They had been playing for awhile when Kenshin stopped her.

"Is something wrong?" he asked gently, as she picked out another song.

"No." She said automatically, then exhaled, blowing some of her hair out of her eyes. "Maybe. It's Christmas."

"Christmas is supposed to be a happy time, that it is."

Kaoru turned and looked at him. "You don't find it happy either?"

"Past Christmases don't offer up too many happy memories for me. Haven't you wondered why we haven't played many Christmas song?" He smiled a bit at Kaoru, who gave a soft smile back.

"Truthfully, I did not notice."

"What has been troubling you, Miss Kaoru?"

Kaoru bit her lip, swinging her crossed legs under the piano bench, unsure of where to start. She hated to bring up money, but it was at the root of her problem.

"My friend Misao, is throwing a Christmas party tomorrow. Everyone is coming, and there is supposed to be a gift exchange. I don't..." She stopped, and looked at the ground.

"Not enough money for Christmas cheer?" he asked, and Kaoru nodded.

"I hate it, because they have been so kind to me, even though..." She stopped herself and looked a little shocked that she would just blurt out her secret like that. Kenshin always helped her to feel safe, and she found herself letting her guard down, "even though I don't have much I can repay them with." She corrected hurriedly.

"You know," Kenshin started, leaning back on the bench and looking up, "I have found it's not the expense of the gift, but how much thought and attention goes into finding or making it." He turned to her, she was looking up at him with her dark blue eyes, and he could see the dark shadows under them as if she hadn't been sleeping well. She looked so much like a child, he wanted to reach out and make it better. "I used to make a giant gingerbread house every year." He confessed, giving her a goofy smile, "If you want, you can come over and we can work on one for the party. Every good Christmas party needs a gingerbread house."

Kaoru smiled.

Kenshin's house was small, but everything in it was well made. He had stopped by the store to pick up everything that the would need to make the houses, and Kaoru had followed the direction he had hastily written to his house. She was sitting on his steps when he arrived.

"I've got two other bags in the car if you want to grab them," he called, bounding up the porch with several others as he messed with the screen door and a set of keys. Kaoru went to grab them and they were soon setting up inside the kitchen. She hadn't seen a piano when she came in. She looked at the bags of flour and sugar and candy, and started arranging things neatly.

"Kenshin, I don't know if I can cook." She said, suddenly looking up at him.

"That's okay, I know this recipe by heart, so I'll let you do all the easy parts: Mixing and decorating and tasting." He smiled brightly, and Kaoru couldn't help but smile back.

"Kenshin."

"Yes?"

"All this food is expensive." She said looking over it. "And I don't have a Christmas gift for you." She looked at the food on the counter a bit dejectedly.

Kenshin put down the large set of mixing bowls he had just pulled from an over head cabinet. Kaoru didn't look up when she heard him coming over, but her eyes widened as he scooped her into a hug. "Miss Kaoru." He began after giving her the largest hug she could remember. He held her at arms length and looked her in the eyes, "If you must, you can think of this food I bought as my Christmas gift to you, and your Christmas gift to me is being here helping me bring a little bit of cheer into what would normally be a very dreary and lonely place. Please cheer up and have some fun, it's my pleasure to have you here!"

Kaoru was a little bit shocked and could only nod for a second, before breaking out into a wide smile. Which faltered a bit when he brought out the aprons, one of which was a bright pepto bismal pink.

Kenshin ended up wearing the pink one, and as he predicted it made her fall over onto the floor laughing. He liked to make her laugh, it always looked like her laughter surprised her. He put on some bright cheerful music and had her mixing and stirring as he measured and poured. While they were waiting for the large sheets of gingerbread to bake he made them both a large hot chocolate coffee concoction, "For energy." He had said, handing her the large cup with an even larger dollop of whipped cream on the top.

They sat on the couch and drank and talked about random things. Kaoru told him about Misao and Aoshi and their group of friends, and how Misao was a bit unsure what she wanted to do, because she would get so excited about things, and then suddenly not lose interest, but get more excited about something else. This quarter drama had seemed to take over her life, when before that it was painting and before that it was biology. Aoshi was going to be an engineer, and was actually working on his PhD. They talked about music and Kenshin talked about some of the places he used to play and musicians he had played with. Kaoru didn't know names, but she knew music. When he brought the gingerbread out of the oven to cool, they drew out the plans for the large house they wanted, and he used the last bit of dough to cut out gingerbread men. They had a quick fight with flour, started by Kenshin, and both of them sat down to decorate the house with white smudges all over their faces and clothes. Kaoru's dark hair featured a particularly large white flour bloom.

Kaoru couldn't have been happier. The music, while not Christmas tunes, was cheery and comfortable, and Kenshin was always fun to be around. The gingerbread house was an elaborate display of candy and frosting, with actual sugar 'glass' for the windows and edible scenery made possible with some sugar dough Kenshin had whipped up and some food coloring. It was quite late when Kenshin declared the house finished and Kaoru had put the last finishing touches on her gingerbread men. She looked up at it and studied it.

"It's missing something" she decided.

"Oh? What's that" Kenshin said, still in the horrible frilly pink apron. She came over and took a piping tube and wrote on the welcome mat, "Home, Sweet, Home." A bit shaky, but readable.

"There! Now it's done." She smiled at the finished product.

The gingerbread men were finished and Kenshin was looking at Kaoru's details. "They are quite cute. Should we take it to your place now?"

Kaoru paled a bit, then shook her head, "I was wondering if I could keep it here until the party? It's easier for me to carry from here..."

"Carry? Oh! You don't have a car. Well, if you want, I can drive you to the party tomorrow, when is it?"

"Would you like to go?" Kaoru asked suddenly. "Misao said I could bring someone. It starts at five, but I feel like I should be there a bit before to make sure everything is set up."

"Sure," he said smiling, "If you don't mind showing up with a teacher." and he laughed a bit. "It's getting late, do you need me to drop you off at your house?"

"No, no, I can walk, it won't be any trouble."

"Actually, it's very late," he said, looking at his watch and frowning. "You're probably better off just staying here. The couch doesn't fold out, but the cushions are very comfortable. I don't mind sleeping there at all."

"The couch would be good. If... if you really don't mind?" Kaoru looked at the couch. She had been planning on walking to a large truck stop where she could pay for a decent shower before the party. But sleep would also be nice. She couldn't refuse that.

Kenshin had slept on the couch, despite Kaoru's arguing with him about it. Loudly. The only reason Kenshin had won was that by the time Kaoru had gotten out of the shower he had insisted she take, he had already curled up under a large blanket and was snoring. She couldn't wake him up, or pull him off the couch and back to his own bed. He wouldn't budge and she was sure that he was pretending. Finally she had huffed back to his room where she had found his comforter and sheets pulled back for her, and she curled up in softness that smelled slightly of ginger and couldn't remember why she had been so dead against something so wonderful. She fell almost immediately into the deepest sleep she had found in years before she even remembered to turn off the lamp.

She didn't hear Kenshin get up, smiling, and turn off the lights. He stood watching her for a second, her face finally losing a tenseness that it usually only lost while she was at the keys of the piano.

* * *

It was a disaster.

Not the party.

The party had been wonderful.

Misao had let her borrow a more festive shirt and even helped her put her hair up in a little twist instead of being tied up in a usual scarf or ribbon. Everyone had loved the gingerbread house, to the point of at first not wanting to eat it. Kaoru had then given everyone their gingerbread men that she had decorated to look exactly like them, down to the long braid on the back of Misao's and the bright blue icing she used for Aoshi's eyes. They had eaten those, and it wasn't long after that people were arguing good naturedly over which parts of the house they wanted to eat next.

Kenshin had been a gentleman to everyone, getting along great. Kaoru had received a really cute scarf from Misao, along with a new pair of gloves and some new music CDs. The egg nog was good, if a bit strong. She blushed furiously when caught under the mistletoe and giving in to the cheers of her friends, Kenshin had leaned over to give her a soft kiss.

No, as far as Kaoru was concerned, the party had been the most wonderful thing in her life up until that point.

But now she was in Misao's living room. Everyone had left. Even she had left, but had only gotten as far as Kenshin's car. Kenshin was sitting across from her. Aoshi was there, next to Kenshin. Kaoru was crying, harder than she had ever cried in her life. She knew that they had to hate her.

He had said he'd drop her off as they climbed into his car. She had said no, she'd walk from his house. She couldn't use the excuse she had to get her bag, as she had brought it with her out of habit. It was too cold for her to walk, he had said. She pointed to her new scarf and gloves, and the overcoat she always wore. She didn't feel the cold. Why didn't she just tell him the directions and stop being stubborn. Could he please just go?

Back and forth it had gone. He was calm, refusing to go without directions. The more calm he was, the more upset Kaoru became. Finally she burst into tears and flung herself out of the car. She could hear him following her, so she went to run, but he was there, and he wouldn't let her go. Why couldn't he just let her go? She didn't want him to know, didn't want him to see the truth. She struggled only for a second, and then she cried harder, there on that cloudy winter evening in the streetlight. She put her head onto his chest and began sobbing harder as he held her, trying to comfort her. He had brought her back to Misao's.

She had told them then.

She was sorry. She hadn't meant to lie. She had been lonely and had missed having friends. She tried to explain, tried to explain about not being able to find a job, and sleeping on the bench at the college because it was safer. She tried to explain, but it all felt so horrible to her, so she cried, and knew it would be over. Knew they would hate her. She hid her face in her hands and curled her knees up, hiding herself from their reactions.

"Oh Kaoru, you idiot."

Kaoru had expected those words, but not in the way they were said. Nor did she expect the way Misao had thrown herself around her, and then Misao was crying too. "Why didn't you tell me! I could have helped you, and you could have stayed on the couch here! We'll use this place as your address. And you'll get a job and it will be better because you'll have us! You're our Kaoru." Misao had been able to talk through her tears up until that point, and then she started crying almost as hard as Kaoru.

Kenshin and Aoshi watched, then gave each other a look and a small smile that might have meant, "Women." But Kenshin's eyes looked like they might have been holding back a large wave of emotion, and even Aoshi's stare didn't seem to made of ice that was quite so cold.

* * *

It was spring. Misao was dragging Aoshi as fast as she could through the courtyard where the newly planted tulips were bright and they could just see beautiful fluffy clouds through the limbs of a large live oak.

"If you do not move faster we are going to miss it!" Misao was shouting as she pulled hard on Aoshi's hand. "I refuse to miss this performance."

"Was Kaoru able to get off work? She was worried about Tae having enough help..."

"Of course she got off work! Kenshin would have kidnapped her and tied her to the piano had she thought about not showing up. Especially with the number of people who are going to be here. And I hear Kenshin called in several favors to several concert halls and several advanced programs. I would have abducted her from work myself, come to think about it!" They arrived at the door, tickets in Misao's hands, and were shown their seats. Misao fidgeted nervously after checking their position on the program (last), until Aoshi caught her hands in his.

"I'm so nervous for her," She whispered to him. "It's her first time to play in front of people. She hasn't even really played for me."

Aoshi smiled, "Kenshin thinks she is one of the best pianist he's ever taught, I am sure she will do brilliantly.

Misao couldn't help but let out a squeal as the lights dimmed. The talent that came before was quite good, and Misao had been prepared to skewer them with sharp barbs, but couldn't find anything really bad to say about any of the students. Everyone was quite technically sound, and Kenshin had done a good job as their teacher. Finally, Misao sat straight up as her friend's name was announced.

"And one of Kenshin Himura's private students, Miss Kaoru Kamiya."

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod..." Misao repeated under her breath nervously, stopping only when she felt Aoshi's hand on her back.

Kaoru looked stunning. She wore a smile black dress that she had bought secondhand and had altered. Misao had done her hair that morning. It was piled on her head in a mess of curls, and there were a few glittery pins holding everything into place that caught the light as she moved. She walked slowly to the piano and sat down, not daring to look out at the crowed. She took a breath, and looked past the piano. Off stage she could barely make out the red hair of Kenshin with the spotlight in her eyes. She knew he was smiling at her. She gave him a small smile, then closed her eyes. She felt the music, knew the piece she was going to play.

Kenshin's song. She had heard it so long ago it seemed, though it reality just a few short seasons ago. She had played it when she first sat down to the piano, and then again when he had sat down with her to teach her the ending. And now she was here. But she wasn't playing that song, not exactly. She took the melody, the chords, and played them around each other. She knew the song she practiced, but it was not the song she had lived. There had been sadness first, yes, but it did not end in misery. She brought the melody up and told the story of forgiveness, comfort, and belonging. She told the story of her home.

When she had finished, she was almost afraid to look up, but when she did, she saw Kenshin. She saw tears running down his cheeks, but he was smiling so broadly at her, so happily. It took her a moment to realize that she had been crying, and smiling as well. Had she looked out at the audience, she would have seen the joy radiating from every face as they clapped and cheered, but her eyes were only for Kenshin. She didn't quite hear the applause, as she managed a bow.

And then she was running across the stage to where Kenshin stood, straight into his open arms.

* * *

**A/N** - This is a one shot that found its way into my mind this morning. It made me smile to think about it so I knew I had to write it. I hope I did my idea justice, and that you enjoy it. (I just updated this story with an edit, just a few quick fixes.)


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